Nationality: United StatesExecutive summary: Broke the Watergate story

Military service: US Navy (1969-70)

In the early morning hours on Saturday, 17 June 1972, burglars broke into the Watergate office complex, where the Democratic National Committee had its headquarters. Five burglars were caught red-handed, and one of them was an ex-CIA agent who provided "security" for the Republicans. Other newspapers weren't very interested in the story, but at the Washington Post, it was assigned to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. In a series of stories, their work eventually connected the burglars to a massive "slush fund," a crooked attorney general, and a president who resigned to avoid impeachment. Bernstein did most of the writing, because he was a better writer. Woodward's strength was the tedious leg- and phone-work. Their book, All the President's Men, was a huge bestseller, made into a Hollywood movie starring Robert Redford as Woodward and Dustin Hoffman as Bernstein. The identity of their source, Deep Throat, was a mystery for more than thirty years. On 31 May 2005, it was revealed to be W. Mark Felt, second in charge of the FBI at the time. Woodward confirmed the identity.

Bob Woodward went to Yale, served in the Navy, and went into journalism 1972 with the Montgomery County Sentinel in Rockville, MD. It took him a year to latch on with the Washington Post, and it was two years later when he and Bernstein were assigned the Watergate story. After collecting his Pulitzer for Watergate, Woodward stayed with the Post, and moved up the ladder. Woodward was the lead reporter in the Post's coverage of Sept. 11, 2001, picking up a second Pulitzer in 2002.

He's also written Maestro, about Fed chief Alan Greenspan; The Commanders, about the rush to the 1991 Gulf War; Bush at War, about the war on terror; The Agenda, an account of the Clinton era; and co-written The Brethren, a study of the Supreme Court. Woodward's post-Watergate books are knocked by some as factually-challenged, with a penchant for "novelizing" historical events and inventing conversation that help move the story along.

Author of books:All the President's Men (1974, with Carl Bernstein)The Final Days (1976)The Brethren (1979, with Scott Armstrong)Wired (1984)Veil: The Secret Wars of the CIA (1987)The Commanders (1991)The Man Who Would Be President (1991, with David S. Broder)The Agenda: Inside the Clinton White House (1994)The Choice (1996)Plan of Attack (2004)